Mistress of Rome

Thea, a fourteen-year-old Jewish slave, practices ritual bloodletting to cope with her bleak existence serving the cruel and ambitious Lady Lepida Pollia, daughter of the gladiatorial games organizer Quintus Pollio. In September of A.D. 81, Thea accompanies her mistress to the Colosseum for the accession games of the new Emperor, Domitian. During the midday executions, a powerful, scarred prisoner savagely attacks his guards rather than kill another captive. Impressed by his ferocity, Domitian spares the man’s life. Thea is unexpectedly moved to tears by the prisoner’s defiant spirit. That night, she endures her master Quintus Pollio’s ongoing sexual abuse.

Months later, Domitian’s niece, Lady Julia, expresses her fear of her uncle as she prepares to marry her cousin Gaius. The slave spared by Domitian is now a gladiator named Arius, owned by a trainer, or lanista, named Gallus. Haunted by an inner "demon" of rage, Arius is sullen despite winning his first bout. He learns from Gallus that the rudius, a wooden sword signifying a gladiator's freedom, is little more than a myth. Meanwhile, Lepida, now fifteen, becomes betrothed to the much older Senator Marcus Vibius Augustus Norbanus, the grandson of Emperor Augustus. While attending the games following Julia's wedding ceremony, Thea sees Arius among the gladiators and learns his name.

In his first solo bout, Arius is forced to fight five female gladiators. He discovers the last survivor is a fellow Briton who begs him for a quick death. He complies, and in a subsequent rage, breaks his sword, earning the crowd's thunderous applause. Lepida becomes obsessed with Arius and persuades her father to match him against the champion, Belleraphon. At a pre-fight banquet, Arius meets Thea in the bathhouse. They share their traumatic pasts: he recounts his capture in Britannia and enslavement in the salt mines, while she describes the mass suicide at Masada, where her family was killed, explaining her self-harm as a penance for surviving. The next day, Arius brutally kills Belleraphon and becomes the new star of the Colosseum.

Lepida leaves for her summer villa in Tivoli, ordering Thea to remain in Rome and deliver weekly letters to Arius. As Thea reads the letters to the illiterate gladiator, a tentative connection forms between them. Arius is deeply moved when Thea sings a song from his homeland at a tavern he frequents. However, fearing his violent nature, he abruptly ends their meetings and bars her from the gladiator school. When Lepida returns and learns of his rejection, she is furious. Arius attempts to escape Rome but is caught and forced by Gallus to fight in brutal, unregulated matches in the city's slums. Thea is sent to deliver a message for a tryst from Lepida, but Arius follows Thea instead. They confess their feelings during a storm and become secret lovers.

Their affair continues through the winter, but Arius’s love for Thea makes him fight more cautiously. In a match arranged by Lepida, Arius is pitted against six men and is nearly killed, but Thea incites the crowd to call for mercy, saving him. He promises to win his freedom and buy hers. Soon after, Lepida discovers their affair and sells Thea to a pimp who supplies waterfront brothels. Enraged, Arius attacks Lepida, shearing off her hair. In Brundisium, Thea works as a prostitute and discovers she is pregnant with Arius’s child.

Five years later, Thea, now known as the singer Athena, has been bought from the brothel by a kind praetor named Larcius. She raises her son, Vercingetorix, called Vix. Lepida is married to Marcus Norbanus and has a daughter, Vibia Sabina, who has epilepsy. To keep Lepida from Emperor Domitian's predatory attention, Marcus has moved the family to Brundisium. Paulinus, Marcus’s son and now a Praetorian officer, begins an affair with Athena. Seeking revenge for being removed from Rome, Lepida seduces Paulinus. When Marcus discovers the affair, he has Paulinus transferred to Germania and attempts to divorce Lepida, but she blackmails him into staying married by threatening to ruin Paulinus’s reputation. Meanwhile, Domitian’s astrologer, Nessus, prophesies that Arius will have three deaths. Intrigued, the Emperor denies Arius freedom and subjects him to a series of increasingly deadly fights, all of which he survives.

Domitian later comes to Brundisium, grieving the death of his niece Julia. At a banquet, he is fascinated by Thea and takes her as his mistress. He brings her to his private villa in Tivoli, where he reveals his sadistic nature, abusing her physically and psychologically. At the end of the summer, he informs her that he has had Larcius executed for treason, making Thea his legal property. He has a silver collar welded around her neck as a mark of ownership.

By A.D. 91, Arius has been living for a year in hiding as a gardener at the Tivoli villa of Domitian's other niece, Flavia Domitilla. Paulinus, now Praetorian Prefect, finds solace visiting a Vestal Virgin named Justina. When Paulinus escorts Thea to Flavia’s villa, she is emotionally reunited with both Vix, now nearly twelve, and Arius. Paulinus discovers their history and agrees to keep their secret. Arius reveals his identity to Vix and begins training him to fight. Lepida, resentful of Thea's long-standing position, sends an anonymous letter to Domitian accusing Thea of having an affair with a slave.

At a state banquet, Domitian confronts Thea and has the accused slave, Ganymede, murdered. Vix, hidden among the servants, attacks the Emperor, wounding his foot. In retaliation, Domitian arrests Flavia and her family for treason, exiles Thea, and takes Vix as his personal prisoner, transferring Thea's collar to the boy's neck. Lepida becomes the Emperor's new mistress. Flavia is sentenced to death, but the Vestal Justina publicly pardons her, an act not even the Emperor can override. Summoned by Domitian, Justina reveals her true identity: she is Julia Flavia, who faked her death years prior. Domitian has her imprisoned and executed.

Exiled, Thea finds Arius, and they seek help from Marcus Norbanus. They form a conspiracy with Marcus, Paulinus, and the Empress, who has discovered her own death warrant, to assassinate Domitian. In the following months, Domitian tires of Lepida, and Marcus publicly divorces her, leaving her socially ruined. On Vix's thirteenth birthday, Domitian forces him to fight a veteran gladiator. Vix is badly wounded but wins, earning the title "Young Barbarian."

On September 18, A.D. 96, the day of Domitian's prophesied death, Lepida discovers the conspiracy and goes to the palace to betray them. Sabina overhears her and warns Paulinus and Vix, who intercept Lepida and lock her in a closet. As the prophesied hour of death passes, Domitian relaxes. Thea goes to his chambers as a diversion, followed by Arius disguised as a slave. Arius attacks the Emperor. In the struggle, Domitian fatally wounds Paulinus before Arius kills him.

In the aftermath, a vengeful Nessus strangles Lepida. Marcus is offered the throne but refuses, and power is transferred to Senator Nerva, with the general Trajan as his heir. Marcus decides to marry Calpurnia Sulpicia, Paulinus's former betrothed. The Empress grants Thea, Arius, and Vix their freedom and passage to Britannia. As their boat sails down the Tiber, Thea performs one last symbolic bloodletting, dropping a single drop of blood into the water before promising Arius she is finally free of her past."